Life is at root a chemical phenomenon: this is its deep logic. Along the way, Lane brilliantly recounts the scientific detective work that discovered this process while deconstructing textbook views about metabolism. And it puts the subtle differences between individuals in the same grand story as the rise of the living world itself. In Transformer, Lane guides readers through the conflicted merry-go-round of energy and matter that is the Krebs cycle. It links the emergence of consciousness with the inevitability of death. It connects the first photosynthetic bacteria with our own peculiar cells. To grasp the Krebs cycle is to fathom the deep coherence of biology. Nick Lane is in the vanguard of scientists now tracing its ramifications across the tree of life.

This conflicted merry-go-round of energy and matter has long taunted true understanding. About the Author: Nick Lane is professor of evolutionary biochemistry at University College London and an award-winning author of five books. At its core is a cycle of reactions that transforms inorganic molecules into the building blocks of life, and the reverse - the iconic Krebs cycle that sits at the heart of metabolism. Enlivened by Lane’s talent for distilling and humanizing complex research, Transformer offers an essential read for anyone fascinated by biology’s great mysteries. In Transformer, Nick Lane captures a scientific renaissance that is hiding in plain sight. The answer could turn our picture of life on Earth upside down. What really animates cells and sets them apart from non-living matter? This question goes back to the flawed geniuses and heroic origins of modern biology. Yet in terms of information there is no difference between a living cell and one that died a moment ago. For decades, biology has been dominated by information - the power of genes.

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